Spectra Logic Integrates TS1150 Tape Technology into Three Libraries 

Spectra Logic today announced the integration of IBM TS1150 Tape Technology drives and media in three of its enterprise tape libraries: the Spectra T380, T950 and T-Finity. Spectra Logic now provides the largest modular tape library in density and capacity on the planet, the T-Finity; and is also the only vendor to provide an enterprise tape drive in a rack-mounted library, the T380. Spectra libraries with IBM TS1150 Tape Technology offer customers enterprise-class reliability, the greatest data integrity available, the highest capacity per tape, the highest density and capacity of competing libraries, and unsurpassed investment protection.

“Spectra tape libraries with IBM TS1150 tape technology aim to address two major issues for data intensive environments by increasing capacity at the same time as throughput,” said Steve Conway, IDC research VP, High Performance Computing. “The new technology is designed to enable high-performance computing and Fortune 500 customers to solve data management challenges by storing more data and retrieving it faster.”

This is the second time in five years that Spectra Logic has introduced the world’s largest tape library, following the release of its Spectra T-Finity in 2009. Uncompressed metrics for Spectra tape libraries with TS1150 Tape Technology include:

• Spectra T-Finity: 380 PB in a 40-frame library; more than 3EB in an eight-library complex
• Spectra T950: 76PB in an eight-frame library
• Spectra T380: 2.6PB in a 28RU rack-mounted library

With a 150 percent increase in capacity and 45 percent increase in data rate over TS1140 Tape Technology, TS1150 Tape Technology provides the fastest tape drive and largest capacity tape media technology built to date. The new TS1150 tape cartridges are quadruple the capacity of the LTO-6 tapes with an industry-leading 10TB at an uncompressed throughput of 360 MB/s. This dramatic increase in capacity means customers using libraries with TS Technology can increase density rather than expanding outward, using the simplicity and efficiency of increasingly advanced technology to manage storage needs.

“IBM’s TS1150 Tape Technology’s significant advancement in density and capacity will enable customers of all sizes to store more data faster, within budgets,” said Matt Starr, chief technology officer of Spectra Logic. "The lion’s share of tape library acquisition costs are associated with tape media itself. TS1150’s tape cartridge pricing is now in line with competing formats, extending the new generation’s benefits beyond the elite, top tier environments. “As we mark our 35th year, Spectra is delighted to offer the world’s largest capacity and highest transfer rate tape drive across its line of libraries, including the only rack-mounted system available with TS1150 Technology, the 2.6PB capacity T380 library.”

Using TS Tape Technology’s enhanced media reuse capability, TS1150 drives can reformat TS1140 JC media to achieve greater capacity and performance. Media reuse allows a TS1140 JC cartridge to store up to 7TB of uncompressed data versus the 4TB maximum capacity when written in standard TS1140 format. As a result, customers with existing TS1140 media in their inventory can import tapes into TS1150 tape drives for reformatting, and realize up to 75 percent more capacity—for free.

Spectra Logic will begin shipping IBM TS1150 Tape Technology in its T380, T950 and T-Finity tape libraries in November 2014.

Customer Benefits: TS1150 Tape Drive Technology

• Highest capacity, highest performance tape drive ever invented
• Industry Leading Capacity: 10TB Capacity per TS1150 JD cartridge native (25tb compressed @ 2:5)
• Fast Performance: 360MB/s data transfer rates (700 MB/s compressed)
• Exceptional uptime: 237,000 hour MTBF
• Faster load/ready time than previous generation (11sec. versus 16 sec.)
• Faster locate/search speed (improved by 25 percent)
• Information Security: compatible with TKLM with AES-256 bit encryption and key management
• Fifth Generation Backhitchless Flush
• Random Access ordering for faster access to random data on tape
• Supports IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS)
• JC media re-use at 7TB (75 percent increase in capacity)
• Lowest bit error rate of any tape system for tape that’s 1,000 time more reliable than other technology